Abby Zimet: He Practiced the Good

We pay homage to Jimmy Carter, a profoundly decent man, devoted peacemaker, and unwavering human rights advocate who “redefined what a post-presidency could be” over decades of acting on his principles, and thus “taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice, and service.” Carter died at his home in Plains, Georgia at age 100. A heartfelt tribute from one grateful American: “Rest well, Good Man. You earned it.” 

The only Georgian ever elected to the White House, Carter took office in the sordid shadow of Watergate’s lies and quickly promised voters he would always tell the truth. “And he did, consequences be damned,” wrote Barack Obama. “He believed some things were more important than reelection – things like integrity, respect, and compassion.” Noting that Carter “believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image,” Obama quoted Carter’s 2002 acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize: “God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace.” Added Obama, “He made that choice again and again over the course of his 100 years, and the world is better for it.”

On the second day of his four years in office, Carter pardoned all Vietnam War draft evaders. In foreign affairs, he went on to broker the Camp David Accords that reshaped the Middle East, established full diplomatic relations with China and completed Strategic Arms Talks with the Soviet Union. Domestically, he created the Departments of Education and Energy, diversified the federal judiciary, including nominating the pioneering Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the federal bench, and as one of the first world leaders to recognize climate change, took multiple actions to address it – created a national energy policy focused on conservation, put solar panels on the White House, expanded the national park system and moved to protect 103 million acres of Alaskan land.

But Carter will mostly be remembered for the longest and most accomplished post-presidency in American history. In 1982, he founded the human rights non-profit Carter Center with his wife Rosalynn; it established health programs credited with helping control or end longstanding diseases – river blindness, trachoma, Guinea worm disease – in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Carter monitored over 100 elections around the world, championed the rights of marginalized people, and with Rosalynn worked for decades with Habitat for Humanity building thousands of homes. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for years of conflict resolution work, including negotiations to end decades of war between Egypt and Israel. All told, Carter “did more to advocate for peace as an ex-president than most politicians in their entire career.”

Notably, almost alone among Western leaders, he also championed the rights of and “injustice“ suffered by Palestinians; slammed for some language in his 2006 book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, he stood by it: “The word ‘apartheid’ is exactly accurate.” One Arab admirer called him a humble peacemaker: “He taught us how to live with principles and how to die with grace.” A protean “dirt farmer” consistently on the right side of history, Carter blasted both SCOTUS’ Citizens United decision – the U.S. was an “oligarchy with unlimited political bribery” – and the racism of MAGA: “He was deeply anti-racist when by birth and time he should have been the opposite.” And for decades he taught Sunday School at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church, where he was beloved for both his Biblical knowledge and “fundamental decency.”

Carter’s death, almost two years after he entered hospice care, triggered a flood of tributes. In a sober in memoriam to “a good citizen,” Robert Reich cites the 1977 message Carter cast “into the cosmos” on Voyager 1 in hopes of someday joining “a community of galactic civilizations” in a spirit of “good will in a vast and awesome universe.” Of its naive optimism, he says, Carter believed deeply in our capacity to create civil societies “that would contain the beasts in all of us…Humanity over inhumanity….He not only saw the good in others, but he practiced the good.” He was “one of the best and most decent people ever to serve as president”; his life, writes another patriot, allows us to “still be proud of this fragile country.” In his honor, and oh so fittingly, our flags will be flying at half-staff on Jan. 20 to represent a nation in mourning.

Abby Zimet has written CD’s Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, she moved to the Maine woods in the early 70s, where she spent a dozen years building a house, hauling water and writing before moving to Portland. Having come of political age during the Vietnam War, she has long been involved in women’s, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. 

First published by Common Dreams. Licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.